Oh, No! Don't Put Me in the Nursery!

I was helping a young woman in our church recruit nursery workers for our growing nursery. I had four kids already and #5 was well on the way, so I used our church nursery a lot, especially since my husband, the pastor, couldn't sit with me and help with the kids. So, I knew the value and importance of nursery workers. I went to *Stacy and asked her if she would be willing to take a turn in the nursery once every six weeks or so. Stacy was a mother herself, but her children were long out of the nursery stage and were all grown. I thought she'd love to help us out.

"Oh, no! Don't put me in the nursery. I've served my time in there. Sorry," was her response. I was a bit taken aback, but was too busy with my own family and other responsibilities to give it further thought that day.

But, later, I mentioned it to my husband. His response was, "Hmmm....okay, then, don't ask her again. Just let it go. She must have a reason."

I let it go and thought no more about it. Life continued in its busy way. My husband continued preaching his exclusively expository messages and the nursery, buzzing with babies, was not mentioned to Stacy again.

One day, several months later, Stacy came to me after church. She said, "Hey, I really want you to put me on the nursery schedule. Are you still looking for workers?  I see we have lots of new babies (and we had a set of twin baby boys, too!) and I'm very capable of helping out with that."

I said, "Sure. Would once every six weeks be okay?"

"No," she responded, "I'll just do it every week, during Sunday School. I'll be the nursery Sunday School worker. I mean, if that's okay with everyone."

Smiling, I said, "I do believe that will be okay with everyone involved! Thank you."

And Stacy joyfully served in that nursery during Sunday School for 12 years. Every single week. Without one complaint.

This, people, is grace at work.

If the idea of grace has to be demanded, begged for and hammered into people, it does not come. You may see behavior changes that people will make to avoid being hammered, but you will not see heart changes that transform people into humble, joyful servants.

Humble, joyful service comes only through grace. Grace comes only from the Lord Jesus Christ.

As King David said in Psalm 27:14, "Wait, I say, on the LORD."

Wait.

I can't even express the joy that comes through waiting on the LORD. It is unspeakable.

~Tricia

(*Not her real name)

You Wanna See Grace at Work?

I grew up living in fear. Between threats of harm, guns being held to my mother's head right before my very eyes, beatings that left me black and blue and the screams of my mother and siblings, fear was a constant companion of mine from as far back as I remember. My dad ruled with alcohol and terror, losing control so quickly that I would never see it coming.

So, I knew fear. Fear was my friend. It helped me, protected me, made me aware of impending harm and was as natural to me as my hands. I wouldn't think of going without my fear any more than I would think of cutting off my hands.

Then, when I was 18 years old, I heard about this man, Jesus, Who died for my sin....and I heard that he rose up from the dead.....and I was enraptured with that very idea. How could it be? How could it not be? I became a believer.

My fear remained.

I got married - to a Baptist preacher no less.

My fear remained.

I started having kids.

My fear remained.

By age 26, I had two kids.

My fear remained.

What did I fear? You name it. I feared everything.

I feared being home alone because I knew a gunman would know I was home alone and would strike at that time.

I feared going places because I knew a car accident could happen at any moment, killing me and leaving my children motherless.

I feared medicine because someone could have tampered with it and it would kill me.

I feared. Everything.

One day, I heard a news story about a couple who was killed by their disgruntled repairman. He left their 7-month-old daughter to fend for herself until her parents' bodies were discovered two days later. A horrid story, I took it personally. In my irrationally fearful state, I thought sure that same man could do the same to us. I had a 7-month-old daughter at the time. I grew increasingly fearful to the point where fear completely took over my life. I could barely function for fear.

It never one time occurred to me to pray about my fear. It didn't enter my mind that my fear could be wrong, irrational, unnecessary or "unChristian-like." It just was. My fear was there as much as my hair was on my head; it was part of me. I didn't even feel the need or desire to rid myself of it.

Enter grace.

One night, my husband was sick and could not get up and check the house for whatever noise I'd heard. While I hid most of my fear from him, nightly rounds through the house because I'd heard a noise were common. This one night, he was too sick to wake up. It was left to me to check the house. It took me an hour to check on the kids in their rooms then make my way downstairs. I started this trek down the stairs at 2:00 AM and ended up in the kitchen at 3:00 AM. I checked every door, every lock, every window, turning on all the lights as I passed them by.

Then, it was 3:15 AM, I was wide awake and scared out of my mind. I had no choice but to sit up all night for fear that my dreaded gunman would come because my husband was too sick to defend us. I sat up on the couch till 5:00 AM, totally alert and rigid, ready to protect my children from this awful gunman who would kill parents of babies and leave the babies alone for days.

At 5:00 AM, I thought it was finally safe to go to bed. After all, gunmen do their bloody work in the night. 5:00 AM is a safe hour.  I crawled back into bed, expecting to get three hours of sleep before the kids would wake up.

But, sleep would not come. Instead, I had an extremely startling thought. "What if a gunman killed you; you'd be in Heaven with Jesus; what's so bad about that?"

Ack! No, no! I thought aloud, "I can't leave my children motherless!!"

My next thought, "What? God cannot care for your children? He is God, after all; they are His children."

My thought-conversation continued with, "But we are just human! How could my children endure this?"

Then this:

"I will now lay me down in peace and sleep, for, Thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8

"Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither the desolation of the wicked, when it comes." Proverbs 3:25

My next thought, "I don't need my fear! This is totally unnecessary! Whoa!"

Grace.

I have never felt the fear since.

If someone had suggested to me that I needed to rid myself of that fear, I would not have listened nor taken them seriously.

If someone has told me that my fear was sin, I would have thought they were out of their mind.

If someone had told me I needed to pray about my fear, I would not have listened but would have thought they didn't know what they were talking about.

Only God can change a human heart.

No amount of persuasion would have taken my fear like grace did. In one fell swoop, with no fanfare, God, in His unthinkable, unstoppable grace, took my fear and I have lived free from it ever since.

This, my friends, is the living God we serve.

This, my friends, is what our God can do in your life, no matter what you are struggling against......or as it was with me, not struggling against anything at all. I didn't struggle with my fear. I just accepted it as part of me and had planned to live with it for the rest of my life.

God had better plans.

I had nothing whatsoever to do with it..

"It is God Who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure."  Philippians 2:13.

Trust His grace.
No appointment necessary.
Read my full story here.
Praise be.
~Tricia

The Grace Path

Grace is a wonder. God is the Author of all grace.....I Peter 5:10. Grace is huge. At the end of nearly every letter written to the churches of the New Testament, the writers wrote of grace to the readers. "Grace be with you all," "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all," and my favorite, "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18) 

But, how do we grow in grace? How do we access grace in our lives? How can we know we have grace?

There is a path to grace. For the sake of time and space limitations, I've summarized the path of grace into three steps. These are not steps you can take for a result, they are steps that God has already put in place and that He takes in your life. Grace is His. 

The steps of grace:

Learn > Desire > Action

First, we learn of grace.....meaning we learn of Him, our Savior Christ. In Matthew 11:29, Christ says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of (from) me..."  Step one: we learn from Him. Since He is the Author of grace, there is no better teacher of grace! 

Learning from Him and about Him has remarkable results. Just simply learning of Him changes our lives. This change can barely be defined as we go about our lives. We don't really see it happening, but one day, as we are going about our lives, we find old desires slowly being replaced by new ones. 

This is grace at work. 

This is God's work in your life. 

You did not create these changes by your strict obedience or anything else.

It is God. Even the very desire to learn of Him comes from Him. 

One day, you notice that your desires are filtered through God's Word, a system of thinking that you have never experienced before. You begin to change. 

This is grace at work.

It is God.

This change taking place in you has a mysterious focus. Suddenly, you want to tell others about your Jesus. You find yourself motivated to look for opportunities to share His love and grace with others. This leads to teaching, serving, prayer and a host of other actions. 

Service = a sign of grace at work in your life.

God's grace. Grace at work.

Philippians 2:13, "For it is God that works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

God works IN you. 

My husband once said......"We are totally saved by grace, while totally depraved." I added, "In need of total grace."  

Totally saved while totally depraved in need of total grace.

It is God. 

Learn of Him.

Your desire to serve Him comes from that learning.

You will become driven to action by that desire.

Grace be to you.

~Tricia